Edina Robin

Differential evaluation in translator training
Edina Robin, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest

When laying out a map of the new discipline, Translation Studies, James Holmes (1988) pointed out the importance of cooperation and mutual relationship between the three main branches: descriptive, theoretical and applied translation studies. The findings of descriptive empirical investigations must subsequently be interpreted within theory and put into practice by training centres and the profession. The present paper aims to demonstrate how a theoretical typology of revisional operations (Robin 2015), differentiating rule-based, norm-based and strategy-based interventions, can be successfully applied in translator training for the evaluation of the weekly translation tasks of students and the development of their professional competence. By separating improving suggestions from correcting modifications in didactic revision, it is possible to provide students with a more accurate picture of their actual achievement, their strengths and their weaknesses, giving them opportunity to refuse or accept suggested solutions. Differential evaluation was applied at the Department of Translator and Interpreter Training at ELTE to test the efficiency of  the experimental method. The feedback received from students through a questionnaire at the end of the course shows that differential evaluation enhances professional confidence, decision making, creativity and competence in translator trainees.

Keywords: evaluation, didactic revision, revisional operations, translation competence